Research Themes and Disease Focus Areas
Rat hepatocyte stained for Dynamin 2 (red) and Cortactin (green).
Research themes
The center research themes have a strong tradition at Mayo Clinic, and several center faculty have achieved both national and international prominence in these areas. While there is certainly overlap in scientific interests among the three themes, organizing center faculty into these thematic interest groups provides focus and structure for exchange of ideas and technologies among experts with similar interests, but differing areas of expertise.
The three research themes are:
- Signal transduction
- Ion channels and membrane receptors
- Genetics and gene regulation
Disease focus areas
In addition to the research themes, the center faculty is also organized into three disease focus areas:
Sensing the environment.
Cholangiocyte primary cilium, extending from the apical plasma membrane into the ductal lumen, detects changes in bile flow and composition.
- Enteric neurosciences
- Liver pathobiology
- Carcinogenesis
While the center's emphasis is on supporting the research themes, the disease focus areas set the stage for translating basic science discoveries to human disease by providing structure and opportunity for additional collaboration and synergy. The disease focus areas provide a forum for basic scientists and clinicians to exchange information and form collaborative alliances. These relationships are beneficial to basic scientists, who need tissues from rare disease states and need the help of clinicians to identify potential patients. The clinicians, in turn, benefit from collaboration with basic scientists who can perform pilot studies of research ideas generated from patient care.